Respect: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin

Aretha’s “Respect” has been lifted up as an anthem for women, and later for Civil Rights, but specifically for us Black little girls who gleefully adapted her demand as our own, “Respect” has been a very personal anthem grounded in the intersection of race and gender. So when I was asked by Eve Ensler to write a vagina fact for a benefit performance of the “Vagina Monologues” at the Apollo, I went to Aretha as inspiration. This tribute to the centuries of Black women’s struggle for respect, for sexual autonomy, is a critical part of her legacy. Here, in her honor, is an excerpt.